Mooring device

ABSTRACT

A mooring device includes an elongate mooring pole and a spreader assembly having a pair of spreader arms pivotally mounted on the mooring pole movable from an inoperative position lying along the mooring pole to an operative position extending away from the mooring pole, the spreader arms having channels formed in the ends thereof cooperating with a leg extending from a distal end of the mooring pole to define a three-point support for a mooring line forming a loop to be released to drop over a mooring.

Matted States Patent [191 Bernardi Aug. 13, 1974 [5 MOORHNG DEVICE2,319,992 5/1943 Hubbard 294/19 R [75] Inventor: Robert P. Bernardi,Harrisburg a 3,677,597 7/1972 St1pek 114/230 [73] Assignee: BernardiBros, llnc., Harrisburg, Pa. P i E i Try ve M, Blix AssistantExaminerGalen L. Barefoot [22] Filed sept' 1973 Attorney, Agent, orFirm-Anthony A. OBrien [21] Appl. No.2 396,672

[57] ABSTRACT [52] 114/221 2124 A mooring device includes an elongatemooring pole [51] Em C B63; 21m) and a spreader assembly having a pairof spreader arms pivotany mounted on the mooring pol: [58] Field ofSearch 114/230, 221, 294/i39/g7, able from an imperative pdsition y galong the mooring pole to an operative position extending away from themooring pole, the spreader arms having [56] References cued channelsformed in the ends thereof cooperating with UNITED STATES PATENTS a legextending from a distal end of the mooring pole 629,760 8/1899 Baldwin294/19 R to define a three-point support for a mooring line gonflinghausforming a loop to be released to drop over a mooring. ayton 2,278,1 113/1942 Kleinfell 294/19 R 7 Claims, 3 Drawing Figures MOORING DEVICEBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the invention The presentinvention pertains to the mooring of boats and, more particularly, to amooring device for dropping a mooring line over a mooring.

2. Description of the prior art The mooring or docking of boats normallyrequires the placement of a looped mooring line around a mooring, suchas a piling, hook or the like, such that the boat can be secured at adock. In order to place the mooring line over the mooring, it has beenthe practice for a crew member to either jump onto the dock or throw themooring line to an attendant on the dock such that the line can bemanually placed over the mooring. Conditions do not always exist topermit such manual mooring techniques; and, accordingly, there have beenprior art attempts to provide extensions or other means for use by acrew member on a boat to facilitate the placement of a looped mooringline over a mooring, as exemplified by US. Pat. Nos. 2,347,718 to Terry,2,811,127 to Palsson, 3,224,404 to DeJong and 3,677,597 to Stipek. Theprior art mooring devices have required substantial modifications ofconventional mooring poles or have taken the form of devices designedfor only this use and, thus, have the disadvantages of awkward handlingand requiring additional storage room. That is, since the space on boarda boat is limited, it is desirable to maintain the space required forequipment at a minimum thereby rendering the use of an additional pieceof equipment only for dropping a mooring line over a mooringundesirable, and attempts to modify conventional mooring poles fordropping a mooring line over a mooring have rendered the mooring poleawkward to handle and difficult to use in normal operation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is generally summarizedin a mooring device for use in dropping a mooring line over a mooringincluding an elongate mooring pole having a handle end and a distal end,the distal end carrying means for engaging the mooring line; and aspreader assembly including an arm pivotally mounted on the mooring poleto be movable to an operative position extending away from the mooringpole and to an inoperative position adjacent the mooring pole, the armcarrying a channel for receiving a mooring line whereby the mooring linecan be arranged to engage the channel and the engaging means at thedistal end of the mooring pole to form a loop to be released to dropover a mooring.

Accordingly, it is a basic object of the present invention to modify amooring pole to provide structure for dropping a looped mooring lineover a mooring without rendering the mooring pole awkward or difficultto handle.

Another object of the present invention is to pivotally mount a pair ofspreader arms on a mooring pole such that the spreader arms can be movedto an inoperative position lying along the longitudinal axis of the poleand to an operative position extending away from the longitudinal axisof the pole to hold a mooring line.

The present invention has an additional object in that an L-shaped hookon the distal end of a mooring pole is provided with a notch cooperatingwith channels formed in a pair of opposed spreader arms pivotallymounted on the mooring pole to provide a three-point support for amooring line such that a loop carried on the three-point support can beplaced over a mooring and the loop released by hand pressure to fallover the mooring.

Some of the advantages of the present invention over the prior art arethat the mooring line support structure does not interfere with normaluse of a conventional mooring pole and the mooring device can beinexpensively manufactured and simply used.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent from the following description of the preferred embodimenttaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a broken perspective view ofa mooring de vice in accordance with the present invention holding amooring line.

FIG. 2 is a broken perspective view illustrating the use of the mooringdevice of FIG. 1 to place a mooring line over a mooring.

FIG. 3 is a broken perspective view of the mooring device of FIG. 1 withthe spreader arms in the inoperative positions.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A mooring device according tothe present invention is illustrated in FIG. 1 and includes a mooringpole 12 formed of telescoping shafts 14, 16 and 18 extending from ahandle end 20 adapted to be held by a user to a distal end 22 having acap 24 secured thereon carrying a resilient end bumper 26 and anL-shaped hook 28 with a resilient bumper 30 on the end thereof. Themooring pole 12 as thus far described is conventional and, thus, willnot be described in further detail. One type of mooring pole which canbe utilized with the mooring device 10 of the present invention is theEEz- In mooring pole manufactured by Garelick Manufacturing Co., St.Paul Park, Minnesota.

The mooring pole 12 is modified in accordance with the present inventionby forming a groove 32 in a leg 33 of hook 28 extending transverselyfrom the longitudinal axis of the mooring pole and by forming adiametral bore 34 in shaft 18. A spreader assembly 35 includes a pair ofopposed rectilinear spreader arms 36 and 38 having inner ends 40 and 42,respectively, piv otally mounted on the mooring pole by means of screws44 extending through flanges of a curved mounting clamp 46 and through aflat mounting clamp 48 to be secured by nuts (not shown). The mountingclamps 46 and 48 are secured to the shaft 18 by pop rivets 49 extendingin the bore 34 such that the mounting clamps cannot slide along theshaft 18 while angular movement is prevented by the arcuateconfiguration of the mounting clamp 46. The spreader arms 36 and 38 havedownwardly turned lips 50 and 52 at the outer ends thereof,respectively, and clips 54 and 56 are mounted on spreader arms 36 and38, respectively, by pop rivets 58 such that the clamps 54 and 56 arespaced from the lips 50 and 52 to form channels 60 and 62 carried on theouter ends of the spreader arms 36 and 38, respectively.

For normal use of the mooring pole 12, the spreader arms 36 and 38 arepivoted to the inoperative position illustrated in FIG. 3 such that theyare adjacent the mooring pole in parallel relation with the longitudinalaxis thereof. Accordingly, the mooring device permits the use of themooring pole 12 for conventional operations without any interference ofthe spreader assembly 35 therewith. When it is desired to utilize themooring device to drop a mooring line 64 over a mooring, such as apiling 66 at a dock 68 as shown in FIG. 2, the spreader arms 36 and 38are pivoted to an operative position extending away from the mooringpole 12, preferably transverse to the longitudinal axis of the mooringpole. With the spreader assembly in this position, the mooring line 64is arranged to be engaged by the groove 32 at the distal end 22 of themooring pole and to pass through the channels 60 and 62 in the outerends of the spreader arms 36 and 38, respectively. The mooring line 64is, thus, held in a three-point support to form a loop with the end ofthe loop held by a user on board a boat 70 at the handle end 20, themooring line being easily held by the user as he grips the mooring pole.The shafts 14, 16 and 18 of the mooring pole can now be telescoped topermit the user to reach out with the mooring pole and position thelooped mooring line 64 above the piling 66 with the opposed arrangementof spreader arms 36 and 38 symmetrical relative to hook 28 permittingthe user to utilize the hook 28 as a central guide to assure that thelooped mooring line 64 is positioned around the piling 66 with the openends of the channels 60 and 62 facing down. With the mooring deviceproperly positioned, the user releases the end of the mooring line heldat the handle end 20, and the mooring line will drop over the piling topermit the user to pull in the mooring line and position and secure theboat properly relative to the dock.

Inasmuch as the present invention is subject to many variations,modifications and changes in detail, it is intended that all matterdescribed above or shown in the accompanying drawings be interpreted asillustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

l. A mooring device for use in dropping a mooring line over a mooringcomprising an elongate mooring pole having a handle end and a distalend, said distal end carrying means for engaging a mooring :line; and

a spreader assembly including arm means pivotally mounted on saidmooring pole to be movable to an operative position extending away fromsaid mooring pole and to an inoperative position adjacent said mooringpole, said arm means carrying channel means for receiving a mooring linewhereby a mooring line can be arranged to engage said channel means andsaid engaging means at said distal end of said mooring pole to form aloop to be released to drop over a mooring.

2. A mooring device as recited in claim 1 wherein said arm meansincludes a pair of opposed spreader arms and said channel means includesa channel formed on the outer end of each of said spreader arms toprovide with said engaging means at said distal end of said mooring polea three-point support for a mooring line.

3. A mooring device as recited in claim 2 wherein said spreader arms arerectilinear and are disposed against said mooring pole in parallelrelation to the longitudinal axis of said mooring pole in saidinoperative position.

4. A mooring device as recited in claim 3 wherein said engaging means atsaid distal end of said mooring pole includes an L-shaped hook having aleg extending transversely from the longitudinal axis of said mooringpole.

5. A mooring device as recited in claim 4 wherein said leg of said hookhas a groove therein adjacent said mooring pole for receiving a mooringline.

6. A mooring device as recited in claim 5 wherein said mooring poleincludes a first shaft carrying said hook and telescoping within asecond shaft, and said spreader assembly includes a pair of clampmembers engaging said first shaft and pivotally mounting said spreaderarms.

7. A mooring device as recited in claim 1 wherein said engaging means atsaid distal end of said mooring pole includes an L-shaped hook having aleg extending transversely from the longitudinal axis of said mooringpole, said leg having a groove therein adjacent said mooring pole forreceiving a mooring line.

1. A mooring device for use in dropping a mooring line over a mooringcomprising an elongate mooring pole having a handle end and a distalend, said distal end carrying means for engaging a mooring line; and aspreader assembly including arm means pivotally mounted on said mooringpole to be movable to an operative position extending away from saidmooring pole and to an inoperative position adjacent said mooring pole,said arm means carrying channel means for receiving a mooring linewhereby a mooring line can be arranged to engage said channel means andsaid engaging means at said distal end of said mooring pole to form aloop to be released to drop over a mooring.
 2. A mooring device asrecited in claim 1 wherein said arm means includes a pair of opposedspreader arms and said channel means includes a channel formed on theouter end of each of said spreader arms to provide with said engagingmeans at said distal end of said mooring pole a three-point support fora mooring line.
 3. A mooring device as recited in claim 2 wherein saidspreader arms are rectilinear and are disposed against said mooring polein parallel relation to the longitudinal axis of said mooring pole insaid inoperative position.
 4. A mooring device as recited in claim 3wherein said engaging means at said distal end of said mooring poleincludes an L-shaped hook having a leg extending transversely from thelongitudinal axis of said mooring pole.
 5. A mooring device as recitedin claim 4 wherein said leg of said hook has a groove therein adjacentsaid mooring pole for receiving a mooring line.
 6. A mooring device asrecited in claim 5 wherein said mooring pole includes a first shaftcarrying said hook and telescoping within a second shaft, and saidspreader assembly includes a pair of clamp members engaging said firstshaft and pivotally mounting said spreader arms.
 7. A mooring device asrecited in claim 1 wherein said engaging means at said distal end ofsaid mooring pole includes an L-shaped hook having a leg extendingtransversely from the longitudinal axis of said mooring pole, said leghaving a groove therein adjacent said mooring pole for receiving amooring line.